1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a gaming machine such as a pachi-slot machine or a slot machine.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, it has been known that a gaming machine (a so called pachi-slot machine) is provided with: a casing adapted to house a plurality of reels of which a plurality of symbols are arranged on a respective one of peripheral faces; a front door that is mounted in an openable manner to a front side opening face of the casing; a front panel that is arranged on a front upper halve of the front door; and a base portion having control means on a top face portion. It has also been conventionally known that the gaming machine of such type is provided with an image display device that is arranged at a rear part of a front panel of the front door, the image display device being capable of displaying an image according to the play of game and transparently visualizing the reels.
In the front panel of such a gaming machine, it has been known that there is provided a technique in which a plurality of decorative sheets printed with pictures (including marks and characters or the like) drawn with the respective colors different from each other are provided on a rear face of a smoke or a half mirror, and a lamp that is provided on a rear face of the decorative sheet varies a color of emitted light, thereby varying a picture that a player can be recognize. For example, a smoke sheet, a red decorative sheet on which a red picture is drawn, and a blue decorative sheet on which a blue picture is drawn are superimposed in sequential order from a top side, and red or blue light is emitted to the lamp from the rear side of a respective one of the red and blue decorative sheets (for example, refer to Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2010-167193).
Under such a construction, in a case where a lamp emits red light, the red picture that is drawn on the red decorative sheet absorbs the color of light, and cannot be recognized, and only the blue picture that is drawn on the blue decorative sheet can be visually recognized. On the other hand, in a case where blue light is emitted, the blue picture that is drawn on the blue decorative sheet absorbs the color of light, and cannot be recognized, and only the red picture that is drawn on the red decorative sheet can be visually recognized. In this manner, the picture that can be recognized by a player is varied by varying the color of light to be emitted. It is to be noted that in a case where a lamp goes out, no picture is displayed by means of a smoke sheet.
However, in the technique as described above, in which a decorative sheet is provided on the rear face of the smoke or half mirror to thereby vary the color of light to be emitted and then vary a picture that can be recognized by a player, transparency of the smoke sheet or half mirror is low; and therefore, the pictures that are printed on the decorative sheets on the rear face of the smoke sheet or half mirror may be too dark to see through, and it has been impossible to print a finely drawn picture onto a decorative sheet. In addition, in the technique described above, only a picture with a color different from that of light emitted from a lamp can be visually recognized, and it has been impossible to arbitrarily determine a color to be used in a picture. As a result, there has been a first problem that an effect with its high entertainment property cannot be provided.
The present invention has been made in order to solve the first problem described above, and it is an object of the present invention to provide a gaming machine that is capable of providing an effect with its high entertainment property.
In addition, it has been conventionally known that a gaming machine such as a pachinko-type slot machine (a so called pachi-slot machine) or a pachinko machine is provided with a display device adapted to display an image according to the progress of game. Further, it has been conventionally known that a decorative panel, which is capable of transparently visualizing an image that is displayed on the display device from a front side, is provided on the front face side of such a display device as well (for example, refer to Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2010-148907.).
The decorative panel that is disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2010-148907 constitutes a door simulating a Japanese traditional semitransparent sliding door called “Shoji”, and the contents that are displayed on a liquid crystal screen as a display screen can be slightly visually recognized from the outside, and even if the door is in a closed state, an effect employing the liquid crystal screen is possible.
However, the door simulating “Shoji”, as described above, is not merely semitransparent; and therefore, it has been difficult to make a variety of expressions including a texture which is hardly expressed by only the liquid crystal screen, for example. Accordingly, while it is deemed to provide an effect utilizing a texture of Japanese traditional paper to show an image that is seen through such Japanese traditional paper, there has been a second problem that actual Japanese traditional paper may be degraded with an elapse of time, owing to an internal heat of a gaming machine or owing to an environment of installation of the gaming machine (such as a smoke exerted by cigarette smoking in gaming facility), its related transparency may lower, and finally a visual recognition of an image may lower as well.
Hence, it has been difficult to employ actual Japanese traditional paper in an effect of a gaming machine; and however, there would be something splendid that a unique texture of Japanese traditional paper deserves to be; and therefore, there has been a demand for a technique which enables Japanese traditional paper to be applicable to the effect of the gaming machine.
The present invention has been made in order to solve the second problem described above, and it is an object of the present invention to provide a gaming machine that is capable of providing a stage effect utilizing a texture of Japanese traditional paper over a long period of time without degradation of transparency with an elapse of time.
In addition, it has been conventionally known that a gaming machine (a so called pachi-slot machine) is provided with: a casing adapted to house a plurality of reels of which a plurality of symbols are arranged on a respective one of peripheral faces; a front door that is mounted in an openable manner to a front opening face of the casing; a front panel that is arranged on a front upper halve of the front door; and a base portion having control means on a top face portion. It has been conventionally known that the gaming machine of such type is provided with an image display device that is arranged at a rear part of a front panel of the front door, the image display device being capable of displaying an image according to the play of game and then transparently visualizing the reels as well.
In the gaming machine of such type, it has been known that there is provided a movable effect member that is operative at the same time as that of an effect display by means of an image display device, for example. In particular, such a movable effect member is provided in such a manner as to be superimposed on a display screen of the display device as well (for example, refer to Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2009-261599).
In this manner, the movable effect member that is operative while it is superimposed on the display screen is provided, thereby making it possible to invoke a player's attention to the effect display more strongly.
However, in the construction of Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2009-261599, as described above, in order to arrange a movable effect member in such a manner as to be superimposed on a display screen of a display device, an effect member storage space adapted to store the movable effect member is provided on a front panel. The effect member storage space, in addition to thickness of the movable effect member, requires a predetermined play space to be provided in such a manner as to disable the effect member to come into contact with any constituent element at its front or rear side as well. Therefore, there has been a third problem as described below. In other words, in the case of a gaming machine adapted to arrange a front panel having an effect member storage space therein, there is a need to reduce a space to be provided between a lower part of the front panel and a top face of the base portion.
In addition, if there is a need to reduce a space to be provided between the lower part of the front panel and the top face of the base portion, operability of the control means that is arranged on the top face of the base portion may be degraded. In particular, in a case where the front panel is formed in a frame shape having a top frame and left and right longitudinal portions, if the left and right longitudinal frame portions extend forward (to the player's side), it becomes difficult to make an operation of control buttons or the like that are proximal thereto.
The present invention has been made in order to solve the third problem described above, and it is an object of the present invention to provide a gaming machine in which even if an effect member storage space for storing a movable effect member is provided on a front panel, there is no need to reduce a space to be provided between the front panel and a top face part of a base portion, and operability of the control means that is provided on the top face of the base portion is not degraded.
Further, in the movable effect member described above, it is often requested to make a repetition operation at the same time as that of an effect display by means of a display device, and there has been a case in which a backlash occurs due to a load caused by the repetition operation or due to aging with an elapse of time. In particular, a possibility of such a backlash increases in a case of a cantilever support in which the movable effect member interlocks with and then couples to a turning shaft via a bearing portion that is provided at one end, and that is constructed in a vertically swingable manner which may be exerted by rotation of the turning shaft.
In this way, in the case of the construction in which the movable effect member interlocks with and then couples to the turning shaft via the bearing portion that is provided at one end, if a backlash occurs between the bearing portion and the turning shaft to be inserted through the bearing portion, it is deemed that a movable range of the movable effect member deviates from a designed predetermined range and then swings up to a reel transparent visualization region of the image display device. In that case, there has been a fourth problem as described below. In other words, there has been an apprehension that visual recognition of reel symbols may be degraded, thereby resulting in interference with an operation of a stop button, for example. In addition, there has been an apprehension that a stage effect may be lost with no match between a timing of driving a movable effect member and a timing of displaying an effect image by means of an image display device as well.
The present invention has been made in order to solve the fourth problem described above, and it is an object of the present invention to provide a gaming machine that is capable of preventing a backlash between a bearing portion in a movable effect member and a turning shaft to be inserted into the bearing portion to its required possible maximum.